Andy's Framing Blog

For those of you that like to pay via BACS or your online banking systems here are my BACS details:

Bank: Santander

Sort Code: 09-01-28

Account no: 20070774

Ref: Your order number

You will find this order number either on your pink receipt or on your invoice. If you cannot find your order number please put the name that the order would have been taken under. Just a quick reminder about payment methods as I DO NOT accept payment via cards. This is because of the high charges that businesses have to pay in order to accept card payments. Thank you for your understanding.

Sometimes it can be a bit of a surprise just how large your pictures can turn out to be once they are framed. They may arrive to you in a tube and the picture appears fairly small. You might have unwrapped it at home but then might feel a little worried about creasing the picture as it is rolled so tightly in the tube and wisely leave the unrolling until the picture framers. Plus the size will increase if you have selected an overmount and perhaps a fairly wide moulding profile. All things considered the picture may not now easily fit into your car when you come to collect it. If you have a car that the seats fold down flat that is always the best way to transport your framed picture back to it's new home. The picture may fit upright on the back seat and this may seem tempting but be careful if you have a reasonable distance to drive and need to brake suddenly as the picture can shoot forwards and the picture could be damaged. Sometimes customers collect their pictures whilst doing other errands (quite understandably as we all have busy lives!). Hence their cars are often filled with shopping and 'little people' which can mean the pictures cannot safely be transported back home. Here we can help with a delivery service. I tend to not charge for this service if the customer's home is more or less on my way home and can be delivered at a time to suit both parties. However if the picture is too large for my van (which will only fit a framed and packed picture 66" long) then you may need the services of a courier. We have access to a highly recommended service and they generally charge around £25 for a local delivery in and around the Petersfield area. Something to consider as the last thing you want after having your picture professionally framed is for the picture to then be damaged in transit.

When choosing a frame or a mount for your picture you may wish to match an existing frame in your home or possibly the décor in the room that your picture will hang. A very good way to match existing frames is to bring along your old frame to our workshop when you visit. If your picture is too big or it is not practical you can always take a digital photo of the frame and e-mail it to us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . If you are in doubt you can always borrow our samples and see which is the exact or nearest match. Additionally when using stained or plain wood it is probably best to compare our samples with your furniture to ensure a good match. Another great idea suggested by a recent customer is to bring in some of your furniture to ensure a suitable match. In this case the customer bought in a pillow from her sofa. It may seem a little over the top but it is incredibly easy to think that the colour frame chosen looks the perfect match only to discover when you get home that the match wasn't quite as good as you had hoped! I am not expecting you all to bring in your oak kitchen tables for matching purposes but please feel free to use any of the above methods to ensure a good match with your décor.

A bit of an unusual hour this morning at the workshop as BBC Radio Solent popped in for an interview about priceless Christmas presents that people might have framed. They had an idea about really thoughtful presents for Christmas for people that are really difficult to buy for. This they thought might involve having something priceless (i.e. sentimental value) framed as a present for loved ones. Quite right too. I would say the vast majority of the items that we frame are priceless to the people that have them framed. They may not mean as much to anyone else but it is all about sentimental value at our workshop. So a really nice chap from BBC Radio Solent called Alun Newman contacted me with a rough idea of an informal, fun interview with a bit of free publicity for us. Great! Just brilliant timing for Christmas too. The techie bit of the radio connection is all very clever with a broadband linked kit which the interview was conducted through. The DJ was Alex Dyke from BBC Radio Solent. The interview might get a bit hung up on whether Jimmy was a canary or a budgie or whether someone might frame a telephone box but all in all a good laugh! Here is a photo taken by my good friend Stephane Rocher of me mid-interview (Notice Carol working hard in the background!).

When you first think about certificates perhaps you could be forgiven for believing they are not the most exciting pictures that can be framed. However, is that really fair when you think about what that person had to ordeal to be awarded that certificate? I have been fortunate enough to frame certificates for people that mark some extraordinary efforts on the part of the recipient. For example I have framed indentures giving people freedoms of cities, Doctorate certificates, armed forces commissions along with other academic and professional qualifications to name but a few. What inspired me to write about certificates is perhaps the way that we are very bad at celebrating our own achievements. My own professional qualifications are on display in my workshop but I must confess that the primary reason was to provide examples of how to frame certificates and not to show off my achievements! I recently framed a customer's son's black belt at karate certificate. The amount of time, dedication and effort to achieve that is an amazing commitment and it is only right that the certificate should be displayed in a prominent place in the customer's home. A far smaller achievement was recently accomplished by myself when I passed my Grade One piano exam. It may not sound an awful lot but it means a lot to me and the resulting certificate has taken pride of place next to my keyboard at home! They do not have to be framed in a 24 carat gold leaf frame (unless you want to!) but they can look really effective with just a simple mount and frame. I always think a certificate framed straight into a narrow black frame almost looks like you are ashamed of the achievement so be bold and show off your skills with a suitable mount and frame.

A common occurrence among a lot of my artisan customers is a personal attachment to the work that they create. A perfectly natural, emotional attachment to feel and I suspect that this stems from pride at the achievements. Imagine you have just started painting and your work is on display at the local arts and crafts exhibition. Wonderfully, it sells! What a great feeling. However, what about keeping a record of your work that you have produced? It would be such a shame to not at least have a copy of your works as you produce them. Or you would simply like a copy of your favourite artistic creation to date? How can this be achieved if you sell everything that you paint? Well I would point you in the direction of Artist Gallery Printing in Liphook, Hampshire. There Rob Jenkinson can help you make digital copies of your original work so that you have at least a copy. You can then also make prints of your work if so required. Do keep in mind copyright laws and you would need to be the original painter of the work of art to have ownership of the copyright and hence it is ok to make a copy of the artwork. Then with Rob's help you can keep an electronic copy of all the work that you create. A great service at a very reasonable price.

We frame quite a few pieces of textile work such as embroideries, tapestries, counted cross stitch and needlepoint to name a few of the most popular items. It is an area of picture framing that we particularly enjoy working with as we have such a lot of very talented embroiderers as customers at the Petersfield Framing Studios. You can also see a page dedicated to how we lace embroideries or tapestries over acid free board to ensure the work is both preserved and easily reversible. The vast majority of the embroideries or tapestries that we frame need to be stretched over a suitable acid free board. Quite often the textile work is stitched over a purpose-made stretcher by the customer which helps to keep the material square whilst the embroidery or tapestry image is being created. However this isn't always the case as even embroderies that have used a stretcher bar are still out of square when they come into our workshop. The most extreme cases tend to be work on tapestry canvas as the stitches tend to be all pointing in one way that leads to a natural parallelogram effect. Here are some examples of some out of square tapestries and embroideries that have come into the workshop recently.

These can be straightened with a steam iron but you need to be very careful and also very patient as the process can be very time consuming. Alternatively we use a machine designded for the purpose. The machine looks a little like a medieval torture device (this could well have been where the idea came from!) and is based on a rack system which can be slowly enlarged by tightening the screw at the top of the photo to gently straighten the tapestry or embroidery.

The work on textile is attached to a row of metal points on one row of the stretching machine.

Then the tapestry is carefully linied up with the corresponding metal point on the other side of the rack.

Once this is achieved the screw can be slowly turned to add tension to the rack to straighten the tapestry. The back of the tapestry can be steamed or wettened slighlty to ease the stitchwork but care must be taken that all the threads are colourfast and that any water added to the image will not make the colour run on the stitches.

This is the end result for the tapestry above.

Here is the embroidery after using the tapestry straightening machine.

Now the embroidery or tapestry can be easily laced and stretched over the acid free board and is then ready for framing.

We are located out in the countryside and it can be a little tricky at the moment to find us. Therefore we are trying to get as many signs as possible to guide you to our workshop. There are some good instructions on how to find us on our contact page. However a new sign outside our building on the left hand side of the Buriton Business Park may help you to see exactly where we are.

This is our new sign and this is the view of it as you enter the Buriton Business Park.

Just come into the building on the left and you will be presented with a long corridor full of pictures on the walls. You may well see a few pictures you like along the way! Just follow the corridor along through the double doors and we are the last unit on the left hand side. We are also working on getting signs up on the main road but this could be a little while longer. However watch this space for more info!

There are a number of ways to fit an oil painting on canvas stretcher bars into a frame. One of the main issues that frequently occurs is that the frame is often shallower than the canvas stretcher so the canvas will protrude from the back of the frame. I have seen many ways to overcome this problem including nailing straight through the canvas stretcher bars at an angle into the frame or bending nails over the back of the stretcher. Z clips are also a favourite which are both hammered into the side of the frame and the top of the canvas stretcher. All of these techniques run the risk of damaging the frame and more importantly the oil painting whilst nailing and leave permanent holes in the stretcher bars if the oil is removed from the frame (for restoration or varnishing for example). A relatively new technique has become available which uses a simple screw-in bracket and these are called canvas offsets.

They are available in many different sizes but the great advantage is that they screw into the frame and can be easily reversed to take the oil painting out of the frame if needed. The canvas is completely secure and also there are no permanent nail holes through the canvas stretcher bars. Note the previous nail hole on this image to the right of the canvas offset shown.

They are very easy to attach to the frame and only a couple on each side are needed. Also this technique is classed as a conservation technique as the oil painting can easily be returned to it's original state before it was framed. There is another brilliant advantage of this system for artists who have just painted their oils. The oil can be fitted into the frame (once touch dry) and then can be easily removed when the oil paints are dry enough for varnishing. This should be at least 6 months to a year after the last paint has been applied and then the oil can be easily removed, varnished and replaced with the minimum of hassle.

It gives me great pleasure to tell you all some terrific news regarding the very talented artist Gordon Rushmer. Gordon has been awarded the Rowland Hilder Award at this year's Royal Institute (R.I.) of Painters in Watercolours' Exhibition at the Mall Galleries, London.

Here is the winning watercolour entitled "The Prince's Palace, Kabul"

You can see Gordon's winning watercolour 'in the flesh' at the Mall Galleries until Thursday 18th April. Click here for more details about the exhibition. Gordon is also holding his own one man show in October 2013 at the Haslemere Museum. Click here for more details.